We are very excited to announce new classes in Northumberland and Bristol which of course means welcoming new Lingotot tutors! Meet Rachel and Kim who are our newest franchisees, looking forward to teaching lots of new classes. Both have degrees in languages and both speak French and Spanish. They have bags of enthusiasm and have a great rapport with children! We are sure you will love their classes. Please get in touch if you'd like to enquire.

You can start to get to know them here...

Tell us a bit about yourselfBonjour! ¡Hola! My name is Kim and I run Lingotot Northumberland.

What attracted you to Lingotot?I have been passionate about foreign languages ever since my first taster session at school, aged seven. It was not until I was at secondary school that I realised how lucky I had been, as, at that time, most other children were not coming into contact with foreign languages until age eleven. I went on to study languages at University (French, German, Spanish and Beginner's Dutch) and spent nine months working as an English Language Assistant in a German Grammar school, which was a fantastic experience. I fell in love with teaching and had a desire to teach foreign languages in an English school. I have a genuine love for working with children and a passion for foreign languages, which is why Lingotot is the perfect fit for me!

What did you do before joining Lingotot? Before joining Lingotot I started a PGCE in Secondary education, teaching French and German. It was during my placement that I realised that the pupils showed little motivation and interest in learning foreign languages. It was then I decided to leave secondary teaching and find a way to have a positive impact on language teaching in primary education (both first and middle schools). It was shortly after this that I saw a flyer in a local supermarket, advertising Lingotot classes, and decided to go home to research the company further. I was both intrigued and amazed by the variety and level of services offered by Lingotot and was very interested in working for the company. Being able to own and run Lingotot Northumberland is a fantastic opportunity and I look forward to the journey ahead!Where are your classes? My classes are held throughout the South-East of Northumberland, including areas such as Blyth, Cramlington, Ashington, Morpeth and Bedlington.What’s your favourite Lingotot song or story? It's a tough choice but I would say that my favourite Lingotot song to sing is "5 Little Ducks" and my favourite story is "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

Tell us a bit about yourselfHello! I’m Rachel, I’m from a small town called Keynsham, situated directly between the cities of Bath and Bristol. I love where I live because it has the best of both worlds – a choice of two vibrant and beautiful cities that are also surrounded by countryside to enjoy nice long walks on the weekends with my two little dogs. The things I value the most in life are my family, my friends and perhaps too often chocolate… I’ll admit I would find it very hard to live without it!

What attracted you to Lingotot?As someone who grew up with French speaking family members talking to me on a regular basis as well as attending a French school once a week between the ages of 4-6, I understand first-hand the amazing advantage of being exposed to an additional language from a very young age!Thanks to my early exposure to another language, I not only had a great head start when it came to learning French at secondary school but also found it a whole lot easier to learn new languages as well! With this being said, I loved the prospect of being able to impart my love of languages to children and provide them the same advantage as I had. On discovering that Lingotot at the time had no Franchises in the South West region, I instantly knew that it would be the perfect opportunity for me and was eager to be a part of bringing Lingotot classes to the South West.

What did you do before joining Lingotot?From already having some knowledge of French, I loved the buzz I got from being able to understand and speak in a different language and decided that one additional language was not enough! I therefore decided to do a degree in Applied Languages: French & Spanish at the University of Portsmouth where I was also crazy enough to have a go at learning a bit of Greek and Arabic out of interest.

Where are your classes?My classes are in South Bristol which includes areas such as Keynsham, Brislington, Whitchurch, and Long Ashton.

What’s your favourite Lingotot song or story?The Hokey Cokey… better known to Lingotot as the Boogie Woogie! I like it because it gets everyone up on their feet and puts a smile on everyone’s faces.

Lingotot HQ is super proud to introduce you to our two newest franchisees, Amy and Jennie. Both are remarkable women; excellent linguists with lots of enthusiasm who adore children! We are sure you will love their classes. Please get in touch if you'd like to enquire.We interviewed them so you could start to get to know them both a little better...

Amy from Batley & Dewsbury

Tell us a bit about yourselfMy name is Amy and I originally hail from a little village in Suffolk. I live in Yorkshire and have done for about 10 years with my husband who is Yorkshire born and bred.

What did you do before joining Lingotot?I have taught Spanish, German and French in Secondary Schools for the past 7 years. Previously I worked for an IT company in customer service and marketing.

What attracted you to Lingotot?Where do I start! Languages have always been a big part of my life ever since I uttered my first foreign word at school and was exposed to the mysterious world of being able to converse with someone not speaking English. It has always intrigued me and still does and I love sharing this enthusiasm and passion. Young children are wonderful to work with and seeing them learn new vocabulary so quickly and with such ease is so rewarding. I have always felt I would suit working with primary age children and was seriously considering a move from secondary school to primary teaching when luckily I came across Lingotot. It is the perfect fit for me and has allowed me to make a dream of mine, to run my own business, a reality.

Where are your classes?My area covers the Batley and Dewsbury area as well as parts of Wakefield Rural district.

What’s your favourite Lingotot song or story?I love the story of 'La Oruga Muy Hambrienta' (The Hungry Caterpillar) as it used to be one of my favourite stories as a kid. It taught me about Science and Maths and it has a very happy ending!

Jennie from Plymouth

Tell us a bit about yourselfMy name's Jennie and I live in sunny Cornwall on the edge of beautiful Bodmin Moor. I'm married to Phil and have two wonderful grown up kids.

What did you do before joining Lingotot?I've loved French and Spanish since my school days, spending several glorious, sunshine-filled summers by the beach in SW France having an absolute ball with my French exchangee, who got to spend her month-long, wet Easter holidays on a boring housing estate near Bristol... I think I definitely got the best deal!I went on to use my languages at work for ten years, which was great. When I had my kids, I taught my own French classes privately and did some coaching for GCSE learners. More recently I've been involved in Post 16 training until the happy accident of discovering LINGOTOT!

What attracted you to Lingotot?I just couldn't resist the opportunity to deliver fun, interactive languages to 'little learning sponges', as immersion learning was what set me off on my own love of languages!Where are your classes?My classes will be taking place in SE Cornwall, in Plymouth and the surrounding areas and in the South Hams of Devon

What’s your favourite Lingotot song or story?Please don't wince too obviously if you happen to hear me singing 'Peux-tu marcher comme un canard?' at the top of my voice in my car!

Official figures have revealed that teachers are quitting the classroom in record levels. More than 4,000 teachers a month left the profession last year, which is a 10-year high. Nearly 50,000 teachers left the professions, equivalent to around one in 12 full-time teachers, according the Department for Education’s statistics . But why do they decide to move on to a different career?

This really interests us at Lingotot as we see many people joining us, either as tutors or as franchisees, who are fed up with the pressures of teaching and are looking for something more flexible, more fun with a lot less paperwork.

According to The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) union survey the top reason for leaving the profession was an overly-heavy workload. Almost 80% of teachers surveyed said they had considered leaving teaching because their workload was too high. When asked what would improve their work-life balance, suggestions included less work to do in evenings, less unnecessary paperwork, reduction of reporting demands and no more education changes in the curriculum.

The tops five reasons for leaving the profession are listed below. We'd love to hear your views!

It is such a shame that so many teachers leave the profession as just over 80% said they wanted to teach because they enjoyed working with young people. Many were inspired by their own teachers and I'm sure most of us can remember one or more fantastic teachers from our youth.

At Lingotot we pride ourselves on offering teachers the opportunity to have a career which offers all of the great reasons people love teaching; fun, variety, love of languages BUT without all of the heavy workload. We provide all planning, resources, workbooks so you don't even have to do your own photocopying! Franchisees benefit from a fun, flexible and rewarding career with great financial benefits.

Five reasons people start teaching

1) Work with young people and to make a difference

2) The variety of the job

3) Teaching is fun

4) Inspiring teachers

5) Love of their subject

If you'd like to find out more about joining us, why not come and visit us at a Discovery Day. Click here to find out more and book your place.

Playing with your child can be a very effective way of introducing a second language. Afterall our little ones learn an awful lot through play and in fact, this is how early years educational settings in the UK prefer to “teach” our children nowadays. You can also buy many bilingual toys for your children which claim to “teach” col- ours, numbers etc. We do love these toys at Lingotot and we make them available to youngsters in our classes, however they must be used with caution. Children simply do

not learn a language if they sit and play with a toy that “speaks” the foreign language. It quite simply doesn’t work.Lise Eliotis a well-known neurologist, mother and baby expert and she says, “Babies, infants and children learn best from interaction with other humans. It’s wired into us. In order to learn, children need language situations where the conversations are interactive, adaptive, and pitched at their level. If the conversations are immediately focused on what they are interested in, that can only help.” So if we play with the toys with our little ones in an interactive way, chatting as we go, then progress will happen - hurrah!

Top Tips for using language through play

Play simple games in the foreign language such as peek-a-boo. This is so simple that anyone can learn the vocabulary to join in, yet it is fun, interactive and meaningful to real life.

When playing hide and seek, count to 10 in your target language.

Play with bilingual toys, but remember to play with your child and chat as you go.

Role-play is a great way to use a foreign language. Have pretend picnics, tea parties, dress up, play shops, doctors and nurses - anything where you can use the foreign language even just a little bit.

We have some excellent news for Lingotots in Darlington and Reading. We are launching new classes there in the New Year, kicking off with Christmas Launch Parties! If you'd like to register for the Christmas parties please give us a call on 0845 680 8148 to book your place.

We'd like to give you a proper introduction to our wonderful new LingoTutors (drum roll please!)...

Tell us a bit about yourself My name is Lucy Cass and I live in Darlington with my husband and two beautiful children aged 5 and 3.What did you do before joining Lingotot? I was a Secondary School MFL Teacher and Head of French/Second in Department for many years. What attracted you to Lingotot? I love the fun and interactive nature of lessons! I really like working with younger children especially now have my own, it's something I have always been interested in doing. I wanted part-time, flexible work so can raise my family as well. Where are your classes?My area covers Darlington, Northallerton, Barnard Castle and Richmond. What's your favourite Lingotot song?"Peux-tu marcher comme un canard?" (Can you walk like a duck?) as children really enjoy being the different animals and get very animated doing the actions!

Tell us a bit about yourself My name is Nerea, I'm married to Joaquim, who is Portuguese and I'm the mum (or amatxu as they call me!) of Oier 7 and Naia 3. What did you do before joining Lingotot? I have lived in the UK for just over 10 years and the majority of this time I have worked for a leading bank. I absolutely loved my job, but I found that working in a corporate environment I was not always being recognised for my job. What attracted you to Lingotot? I've been passionate about languages all my life; both my parents were fluent in French and they loved travelling and learning about other cultures. Also, as I was born in the Basque Country, Basque was also spoken at home. From an early age my parents signed me up to English lessons. All through my school life and university I always excelled in languages and I truly believe it's down to the fact that I was exposed to several different languages from a very early age.

Where are your classes?I cover the Reading area. It's very early days for me, but it has been so amazing the response that I've had from people. I can already see how rewarding the Lingotot experience will be! What's your favourite Lingotot song?My favourite Lingotot song is "Un barquito chiquitito", I always loved that song when I was little, especially when the boat manages to sail

The awards were celebrated after The IF (Inspiring Females) Conference, a one day event showcasing some of the UK’s top female businesses and speakers, plus an opportunity to take part in some practical workshops, all aimed at supporting business growth for women in the North East.It was a wonderful evening of celebration, hosted in the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead by Kim Inglis. It was a chance for us to really celebrate and have a night out away from the kids in a posh frock! We were up against some stiff competition from some inspirational businesses and business women and we were delighted to win. Angela is most proud of the fact we won Best Home Based Business saying,

Angela Sterling, Lingotot Founder & MD, accepting the Award

We franchised the business to provide opportunities across the whole country for children to access high quality language classes. However in the process we have created many many flexible jobs for working mums. Our franchisees all work from home, usually fitting their business around their busy families. Our tutors work part time and juggle family and working life.

We really think carefully about all of our franchisees and tutors to get that work/life balance right, for example tutors access training online at their convenience; some of our franchisees take their youngest children to teaching jobs with them; work meetings are held via video conference at a time we know the kids will be tucked up in bed and we meet in our PJs with a cuppa in hand!

We are always looking for new franchisees and tutors, so please get in touch if you're looking for a professional job that is great fun, very flexible and family-friendly. Click here to find out more.

What a wonderful weekend at the Mumpreneur Conference and Awards! Angela, founder and MD of Lingotot and Lingotot Marketing Manager, Michelle Rose, travelled down from Co Durham to Warwickshire for a fun-packed weekend.

The fabulous Mumpreneur team had lined up some excellent guest speakers, SEVEN of them, all of whom were brilliant.

The government-backed scheme provides funding and mentoring to entrepreneurs. Some of our franchisees here at Lingotot have received this funding to kick-start their franchises, so if you'd like to join us but are struggling for cash it's one way to get started.

Next was Bill Morrow from Angel's Den who helps female entrepreneurs access funding for their fledgling business ventures. He was followed by Anna Kennedy OBE. She set up a school for autistic children after her two autistic sons were turned away from mainstream education. As we teach in many special needs schools we'd love to keep in touch with Anne!

We were all surprised by Henry Patterson (10 years old), founder of British children’s brand, Not Before Tea. What a fantastic public speaker! We should teach him some languages so he can deliver speeches internationally. He told us afterwards that although he is successful in business, he gets £5 per week pocket money.

Mumpreneur Award

Meeting Annabel Karmel

Delighted with our award!

Annabel Karmel was amazing! As a mum I of course have some of her books in the back of my cupboard, but hearing her talk about her business inspiration was wonderful; I laughed and cried in the space of a single minute. Caprice was the last guest speaker of the day and afterwards we had a lovely chat about juggling motherhood with business. She gushed about her sons Jett and Jax. She was very glamorous yet down-to-earth!

When the awards came along we were delighted to be given the Highly Commended Award in the Engage category. The Engage Award recognises businesses that work in close contact with clients and are based upon interacting with others as an integral part of the work they do. We are so proud!

Thank you so much to all of our customers; babies, toddlers, children, parents, nurseries, schools, tutors and franchisees. We owe our success to you!

Here at Lingotot HQ we've had TWO pieces of fabulous news this week; we have been shortlisted for not one but two prestigious awards!

We are finalists in The Mumpreneur Awards, an annual ceremony aimed at celebrating parents throughout the UK who manage the difficult task of juggling business with family life. We been shortlisted for the Engage category, which is open to businesses that work in close contact with its clients.

We are delighted to have been recognised for our achievements in providing excellent languages classes across communities, schools and nurseries. We're really excited to be shortlisted for a national award!

We are also finalists in the WIN Awards for Best Home-Based Business. We are especially proud of this category as our franchisees all work from home and most have to juggle work with family. To be shortlisted in this category our franchisees have shown great self-discipline, determination and passion to develop a successful home-based business, overcoming these barriers, and demonstrating a successful work/life balance.

Below are some pictures of our Mumpreneurs and their Lingotots who made this possible! Thank you to you all!